Actor accused of killing 2 faces trial

Almost two years after killings, Daniel Patrick Wozniak set to be arraigned.

May 03, 2012|By Lauren Williams

The trial of a Costa Mesa man accused in a double murder case has been fast-tracked, prosecutors said Thursday.

Daniel Patrick Wozniak, 28, is scheduled to be arraigned in a Santa Ana courtroom Friday on charges that he killed his neighbor, Samuel Herr, and Juri "Julie" Kibuishi, both Orange Coast College students, in May 2010, according to the Orange County district attorney's office.

Prosecutors allege Wozniak killed Herr, who lived in his apartment building in Costa Mesa, in order to steal money from his bank account. He allegedly lured him to the military reserve base in Los Alamitos, shot him and then dismembered his body, stashing some of the remains in a Long Beach park.

He then allegedly used Herr's cell phone to lure Kibuishi, who was tutoring Herr, to Herr's apartment, where Wozniak allegedly shot her.

He had hoped to frame Herr for her death, which he staged to look like a sexual assault and murder, prosecutors allege.

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Wozniak, a community theater actor, was arrested at his bachelor party in Huntington Beach the day before he was going to get married.

Prosecutors chose to bypass Wozniak's evidentiary hearing, where the evidence is examined to be sure it is solid enough for trial.

In December, Judge Stephanie George said she was frustrated that Wozniak's case progressed so little since his May 2010 arrest, to which family members of the victims and Wozniak himself agreed.

At another hearing in February, Wozniak's public defender told the court he wasn't prepared for a preliminary hearing because he had recently received 76 videos of evidence and wasn't able to review them all.

"You put me in this position where I have to decide whether or not we're being reasonable," George said at the time.

Wozniak has pleaded not guilty to the killings. The district attorney is seeking the death penalty in the case.